19 results

  • The Seismic Capability of Curtainwalls featured image

    The Seismic Capability of Curtainwalls

    The testing of aluminum/glass curtainwalls for seismic capability, mainly inter-story drift, has been carried out on many curtainwalls over the last …

  • Fire Safety and Code Challenges for Mass Timber in Curtain Wall Systems featured image

    Fire Safety and Code Challenges for Mass Timber in Curtain Wall Systems

    With the desire for more sustainable construction and reduced embodied energy, mass timber is being explored for building structures. For medium and …

  • U-Factor Matters in Hot Climates

    It is commonly thought that fenestration U-factor is not a key determinant in the performance of facades in hot climates, and generally the focus of …

  • Heat-Treated Glass featured image

    Heat-Treated Glass

    What was once an accepted reality in heat-treated exterior glass, optical disturbances in glass are under increasing scrutiny by developers, designer…

  • Carbon Lean Facades

    With net zero and carbon neutral mandates on the near horizon, New York City has pushed the green building envelope by leveraging incentive-based pro…

  • Glazing Design By ASTM E 1300

    ASTM E 1300 “Standard Practice for Determining Load Resistance of Glass in Buildings” defines the load resistance of a glass construction as being th…

  • The Evolution of AEC Professional Silos

    Healthcare projects in northern California require specialized knowledge to navigate regulation, technological advancements, and project execution du…

  • Passive House Facade Design and Construction featured image

    Passive House Facade Design and Construction

    Buildings account for over 40% of global emissions (GlobalABC, 2018). Growing populations and higher standards of living are increasing pressure on t…

  • From Design to Experiment featured image

    From Design to Experiment

    Flat cable-net facades are form-active structures which provide maximum transparency by means of point fixing components, tensioned cables, and struc…

  • Rammed Earth & Wildfire

    California is set to be drier and more drought prone with climate change. Wildfire and the subsequent loss of life and housing is a huge challenge. C…

  • When Facades Kill featured image

    When Facades Kill

    The tragic fire of June 14, 2017 at the Grenfell Tower in London, England has brought to a very public global forum issues related to the impact of f…

  • Subjective Perception and Objective Measurement

    Current glass industry standards provide clear tolerances for readily quantifiable physical properties to assist with the evaluation of visual qualit…

  • Specifying Commercial Aluminum Finishes

    Many factors will influence coating selection, but to achieve the desired performance level for a given situation, coatings must be specified based u…

  • Silicone Spandrel Glass Opacifiers featured image

    Silicone Spandrel Glass Opacifiers

    Curtain wall design commonly uses insulating glass units for vision and spandrel glazing to provide better visual harmonization of building facade gl…

  • Lightning Protection as Building Envelope featured image

    Lightning Protection as Building Envelope

    A building’s envelope mitigates the effects of meteorological phenomena – including lightning – upon the structure and its occupants and contents. Th…

  • Fire Safety in High Rise Exterior Facades featured image

    Fire Safety in High Rise Exterior Facades

    One of the most complex yet least understood areas where fire can spread is at the perimeter of a building. Fire can not only spread from floor-to-fl…

  • EUI of Building Clusters featured image

    EUI of Building Clusters

    Large master planned developments such as Battery Park City in Manhattan, Mission Bay in San Francisco, and Playa Vista in Los Angeles were built ove…

  • Deconstructing the Window featured image

    Deconstructing the Window

    Over the years, the industry has relied heavily on the increasing performance of low-e coatings to drive window U-factors (thermal transmittance) low…

  • Integrated Energy Analysis featured image

    Integrated Energy Analysis

    Energy codes across the country are progressively getting stricter and increasing the threshold for a baseline building’s energy performance. Califor…